ALMOST €3 million has been spent on a facility for the Office of the State Pathologist and the Dublin City Mortuary, which now lies incomplete and may end up being demolished.
Construction of the “medico-legal centre” on the northside of Dublin, which was expected to cost €13.8 million, began in August 2010.
When completed, the complex, located on the grounds of the Dublin Fire Brigade Training Centre on the Malahide Road, Marino, was to provide up-to-date facilities for staff at the Office of the State Pathologist, as well as a new home for the Dublin City Mortuary.
But work on the centre, a joint venture between the Department of Justice and Dublin City Council, stopped in November 2010 after the builder went into receivership.
Approximately €2.8 million has been spent on the project to date, but there is no funding available for the continued development of the site, according to the department.
“Unfortunately, the delay arising from the halting of the project and subsequent reductions in the capital budget available to the Department of Justice and Equality mean that the funds to complete the project are no longer available,” said a spokeswoman for the department. The option of proceeding with the project is being kept under review, should funds become available, she said.
The unfinished building, which has been fenced off, has been described as an eyesore.
A decision as to its future was expected to have been made by the end of April, according to the council. Demolition is one option under consideration, it confirmed.
The department is now looking for “alternative accommodation” for the State Pathologist’s office, which is currently housed in two prefabs, and has identified a building which “may be suitable”.
The building, which has not been identified, is also being considered as a possible location for a new Dublin City Mortuary.
An evaluation of the building will be carried out in the coming weeks.
The Office of the State Pathologist has been situated on the grounds of the fire brigade training centre in Marino since March 2003.
There is no dedicated State Pathologist’s mortuary and the State Pathologists carry out postmortems at the Dublin City Mortuary or at hospitals.
The new centre would have provided state-of-the-art facilities for staff including X-ray and CT scanners, laboratories and postmortem rooms.
Previously, Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said new facilities were required.
“The conditions can be challenging here at times . . . We need new facilities. Our employers recognise that, but it’s just that the financial world has crashed around us,” he said in an interview in March.